Great Apes

The family Hominidae is most commonly known as the great apes (the lesser apes are the gibbons). They are large apes with no tails. They have long gestation periods and have few young. As with all primates they tend to have large brains; one species, commonly referred to as humans, has invested all their evolutionary potential into this large brain. Hominids tend to be social animals, although orangutans are an exception to this rule. They are native to Africa and Asia.

There are, of course, many other extinct species from every Genus in Hominidae. You can find more about the evolution of Homo here. There are also many proposed subspecies of most of these Genera, which will hopefully be enumerated in the appropriate nodes.